Gregor Joseph Werner was an Austrian composer. Werner was born in Ybbs an der Donau. He served from 1715 to either 1716 or 1721 (unknown) as the organist at Melk Abbey. During the 1720s he was in Vienna, where he may have studied with Johann Fux and was married on 27 January 1727. On 10 May 1728 he took up the position he was to hold for the rest of his life, as Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court in Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt. The appointment "opened a new era for music" at the court; previously, there had been seven years of relative inactivity following the death of Prince Joseph in 1721; his widow Maria Octavia, serving as co-regent for her young son Paul Anton, had instituted economies in the musical establishment. Robbins Landon and Jones suggest that Werner was hired at the then 17-year-old prince's instigation.